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Opinion Contributor

Why occupiers vow to ‘fight like an Egyptian’

The Obama administration and Congress have other, better, policy options. The administration could, for example, crack down on bank accounting manipulation, in particular the mismarking of second mortgage valuations, which are holding up mass restructuring of mortgages. The administration could restructure an undercapitalized Bank of America, begin principal write-downs and kick-start lending again.

Any U.S. attorney could easily begin prosecuting bankers for any number of activities — like illegal foreclosures on active-duty troops. Obama could do this with the authority he has now — though probably not with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner or Attorney General Eric Holder around.

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Obama could bring troops home and end our various foreign wars, and cash spent abroad would then circulate domestically. The administration could deem China a currency manipulator, boosting net exports.

Taking these actions would restore faith in the political process and allow citizens to believe again that their political leaders can in fact represent them.

But barring policy action, the likeliest scenario for now is a slow-growth economy, with housing gradually trundling along the bottom, buffeted by its structural unsoundness, high inventory and record low interest rates. The economy could always turn up — if housing turns around and corporate investment picks up.

But things could also get much worse — an ominous Eurozone crisis has been lurking for months, and U.S. bank exposure to the Eurozone is an unknown quantity. If that happens, the future will be chaotic — and electoral politics may no longer be the most valued mechanism for distributing political influence.

The people organizing these protests are keen observers of power. Their lack of faith in elections doesn’t just come from disappointment in a president whom many of them supported in 2008. The protesters have also watched what has happened around the world — their organizing techniques were imported from Egypt and Spain via Skype. They watched a people take down a dictator and are inspired by that. Hence, the “Fight Like an Egyptian” buttons.

Many of them saw an uprising in Madison, Wis., over Gov. Scott Walker’s collective-bargaining and privatization initiatives; and they understand the choice to initiate recall elections rather than strikes resulted in a crushing loss for workers.

This is perhaps why one chant in Times Square — “The whole damn system, tear it down” — wasn’t as mild as the signs asking for the removal of money from politics. Or why the pledge of another speaker, who announced that she wasn’t going to stop until “We shut down New York City,” is perhaps worth looking at seriously.

Citizens are finding ways of exercising power outside the ballot box, such as worldwide protests and demonstrations and setting up high-profile tent cities. Citizens are coordinating internationally, and some are considering general strikes and other, more aggressive, techniques to challenge power — techniques that if successful in one country can quickly spread elsewhere.

If political party leaders choose to aggressively ignore the destruction of the social contract these protesters are trying to restore, they may only be ratcheting up the pressure for large groups of citizens to innovate in challenging them.

Matt Stoller worked on the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and Federal Reserve transparency issues as a staffer for Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.). He is now a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.

Despite deep suspicions on the right, Occupy Wall Street is not a left-wing electoral force, and the culture of the occupiers is one that profoundly distrusts electoral politics. There were no Obama signs — in fact, no signs supportive of either party.

There’s a reason this movement is popular. While the Democrats and the Republicans are both in election mode for 2012, Occupy Wall Street has successfully argued that America is in a national crisis that electoral politics is unlikely to resolve.

OUR government has been sold.

There is criminal fraud that has taken place on Wall Street and and in the halls of Congress all covered up by the symbiotic relationship between BIG MONEY and elected representatives in Washington.

The BIG MONEY needs favorable legislation to continue to cheat, and the elected representatives need BIG MONEY to get elected.

It is that symbiotic relationship that is the core factor in the failure of OUR government.

If Obama is going to adopt the vapid populism of the OWS crowd while embracing a narrative that continues to be politically divisive as his 2012 re-election strategy - then one must understand that Obama and the Progressives have abandoned the traditional vision of America for some darker and deconstructed version that only Hugo Chavez would call “transformational.”

use my keyboard to counter the mindless blather of those who are either part of the problem, or who are just willfully ignorant, YOU for an example.

No excuse. You want to keep what YOU consider what is good with "evil" corporations and ruin the rest. Without those evil corporations, no one would be able to read your mindless blather. The city of New york has no mayor. If they had one, there would be cell phone and wi-fi jammers on every corner. The little swine will go back to mommie when the freezing weather arrives.

Any group of people that want to redistribute the wealth are LEFT-WINGERS. As for Egypt tactics? We all see how well that protest worked. The protesters didn't know what they wanted beyond the leader stepping down. They're still fighting.

Occupy Wall Street is a protest against greed. Americans have awakened to the fact that the disparity between the rich and the poor has become obscene. It’s instructive to follow the money trail. In 2008 a worldwide recession was caused by the greed of bankers, (disproportionately Jewish), who turned our financial system into a racket reaping mega-profits until their Ponzi Scheme collapsed. Then they blackmailed us by threatening the Great Depression if taxpayers didn’t bail them out, following which, without missing a beat, the bankers returned to business as usual rewarding themselves with mammoth salaries and bonuses. This money then is used to bribe politicians to keep their tax rates unfairly low and to prevent the financial regulations necessary to prevent a repeat performance of taxpayer looting. Simultaneously, politicians are bribed with campaign cash to follow the dictates of the ultra-rich Israel Lobby (including the New York money people). This involves dragging America into endless bankrupting unnecessary wars to benefit Israeli expansionism, alienating the Arab/Muslim world. Our prostituted politicians care not that bankruptcy and world alienation are against our national security interest. Israel could make peace with the Arab/Muslim world except for its insatiable greed for stolen Arab land. Our next War for the Jews is scheduled to be with Iran. Keeping Americans poor ensures a steady flow of military recruits. The politicians’ campaign cash is then mostly recycled back to the Jew-controlled media for political ads. (This is why the media has such an ecstatic obsession with amounts of money individual politicians raise. It’s their favorite topic.)

The occupiers can deny they are tools of the administration all they want but as long as they protest the symptom rather than the disease they will be nothing more than tools for the administration.

If they want to prove they really care about this country and prove their cause is truely noble then they need to set up camp outside of the US Capital and the White House. Until then they will be viewed by the 54% that will elect a new POTUS as nothing more than a bunch of misguided tools of the Obama administration.

There has been some talk lately about the occupier's protest on wall street being the American Spring.

If the war in Iraq hadn't occured and our brave men and women hadn't put their lives on the line to capture Sadam and we hadn't turned him over to those he had oppressed for 40 years and allowed them (his own peers) to try and execute him there would be no Arab Spring. There would have been no Eygyptians overthrowing their government. There would be no movement toward democracy in the middle east.

If you believe otherwise you weren't paying attention.

So if you want to be considered as a movement that equates itself with the Arab Spring you will need to capture and try the very leader that has oppressed you by bailingout his buddies, the very culprits that ruined our economy. the very reprobates that are currently spending your future for his own political gain.

Zuccoti Ppark, the home base of the OWS movement is owned by Brookfield Properties. Mayor Bloombergs girlfriend is on the board of directors for Brookfield. Leon Paneta, Obama's transition manager has a sister that is a lobbyist for Brookfield's solar power branch. Brookfield received a $135.8 million loan guarantee from Obama's Energy Department.

Last month, the grant was finalized to build the 99 megawatt Granite Reliable wind project in New Hampshire's Coos County, making it the state's largest wind plant.

Seventy-five percent of the new wind project is owned by BAIF Granite Holdings, which was created earlier this year by Brookfield Renewable Power, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management of New York.

Since 2009, Brookfield has been represented by the lobby firm Heather Podesta and Partners, LLC.